Mallory Ratke is Royalton’s Artist of the Month for January

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February 12, 2014 at 3:24 pm

Mallory Ratke was named as the Artist of the Month at Royalton High School for January. Ratke’s work will be displayed in the high school’s media center and art showcases as well as in the AP section of the art department’s high school art department site upon completion.

Mallory Ratke was selected Royalton High School’s (RHS) January Artist of the month. She is the daughter of Patty and Roger Ratke of Royalton.

“I have always had an strong interest in the arts, but photography really caught my attention,” said Ratke.

“Mallory has a great college portfolio going right now in her AP Studio Art Class at RHS. She does a great job with portraiture as witnessed by some of our high school seniors and many of her friends and relatives,” said Royalton art instructor Carl Halverson.

He said over the past several years, RHS has had better than 10 percent of its graduating seniors take advantage of college art credit at RHS.

“Mallory is the fourth student in her class who will complete the AP portfolio,” said Halverson. “Her work goes far beyond traditional portraiture in these works.

“Her compositional skills are strong enough to make the hands on an ordinary clock create a piece which focuses on a strong sense of asymmetrical balance,” said Halverson. “You sometimes forget what you are looking at is as an object because you get lost in the composition itself. Mallory has a unique perspective in her work that is ready to be taken to the next level.”

“The phrase, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’ is something I don’t take lightly,” said Ratke. “To be able to capture the important moments in life for people is something I strive to perfect.”

Ratke said she has been accepted into the photography programs of both Ridgewater Community College and the Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

“Now, all I have to do is make up my mind which direction to go,” she said.

Ratke’s work will be displayed in the high school’s media center and art showcases as well as in the AP section of the art department’s high school art department site upon completion.